Loft and attic insulation - solutions for hard-to-reach areas

Experts say that insulating the attic of a house avoids up to 30% of heat loss. Insulating normal attics is not compulsory, but this can come with significant savings by reducing energy consumption for heating. When part of the loft is converted into a habitable attic, insulation is mandatory. An uninsulated roof makes the attic uninhabitable. But an attic insulation or loft insulation operation can become a difficult one because of small, narrow, hard-to-access spaces. Insulation materials are generally in the form of tiles or carpets and should be cut to fit. But there are also solutions that do not start with materials that need to be cut to size, and insulating the space is very easy. One is to use wood fibres, which also has the advantage of being natural.

We visited a house that was being renovated using many natural materials. The attic and attic insulation was made with wood fibers. The owner, a very outgoing person, walked us around the house to show us all the changes that had been made, with the pride of someone who finally gets to see his dream come true. Upstairs - a sort of higher loft - we ended up in a small, narrow loft area. The house was basically an adaptation of the old dwelling, where part of the attic had been converted into living space, the remaining attic being small and hardly accessible. As insulation with wood fiber carpet seemed very difficult, the decision was made to use individual wood fibres.

But what are these fibers? They are also obtained by the process of partial delignification of wood, as in the case of fibrous plaques, but they are no longer processed to form slabs but are left as tufts of wool or wool. In the above case Gutex Thermofibre. These fibers are made from fir and spruce wood and are blended 5% with ammonium salts to prevent the spread of fire in the event of a fire. They are small and flexible and can easily penetrate into any nook and cranny, creating an insulating barrier.

For the insulation to be effective, the fibers must be packed as tightly as possible to form a compact mass. This can only be done using a machine that is operated by specialized people. This is both a disadvantage and an advantage. The disadvantage is that insulation cannot be done by just anyone. The advantage is... not just anyone can do it. 🙂 It is done by specialists with the confidence that it is very well done.

In a nutshell, it works like this. With the help of a flexible tube and pressure, the fibers are pushed forcefully through a hole in the wall that hides the narrow space. They penetrate into all the areas and are then tightly packed. Finally the hole is plugged, usually with a plug made of the same material as the wall (wood or plasterboard).

The fibers used to insulate the attic and loft of the house were purchased from Naturalpaint, the distributor GUTEX Holzfaserplattenwerk in Romania. The German company launched this insulation method in 2012 and it has been a revolution in the field. Those who apply must be authorized by the firm, however, and for this they follow courses, both theoretical and practical, at the firm's headquarters in Germany.

There are many advantages of using such a system. Here are just a few of them:

• the elasticity of the fibres allows adapting to spaces with the strangest geometries;
• the same elasticity allows keeping in shape when the fibers are injected without clumping;
• the system becomes effective from a density of 29 kg/m3 and the fibers does not settle nor at densities higher than that;
• very good thermal insulation qualitiesboth in winter and summer;
• large heat storage capacity, so that it does not allow heat into the living space in summer and heat out in winter;
• improves sound insulation the house;
• regulates humidity out of the room;
• insulation allows water vapor to pass through in both directions to prevent damp;
• installs in a short time;
• is a natural systemharmless to the body.

The system can also be used without any problems to insulate walls or between floors. The fibers can be injected into the load-bearing structure of wooden houses - between the vertical beams, used as roof insulation (mansard roof), between the rafters or between the horizontal ceiling beams or between the horizontal beams between the floors. The application system allows a much faster installation than the traditional installation of boards or rolls of insulating material. As an example, the insulation of 150 square meters of roof and 120 square meters of walls can be done in less than 8 hours.

I'm sure there's a question on your mind - how well does it stand up to fire? The product is class E fire resistance according to ISO 11925-2:2010. Put simply, if the flame gives off a temperature of 715 grd.C, the insulation will last for 90 minutes.

Like wood fiber boards, hemp insulation or the made of sheep's wool, Gutex Thermofibre can be purchased from Naturalpaint or its distributors across the country.